Inkjet printers have become increasingly popular. A typical inkjet printer usually has a number of common components, regardless of its brand, speed, and so on. There is a print head that contains a series of nozzles used to eject drops of ink onto paper. Ink cartridges, either integrated into the print head or separate therefrom, supply the ink. There may be separate black and color cartridges, color and black in a single cartridge, a cartridge for each ink color, or a combination of different colored inks in a given cartridge. A print head motor typically moves the print head assembly back and forth horizontally, or laterally, across the paper, where a belt or cable is used to attach the assembly to the motor. Other types of printer technologies use either a drum that spins the paper around, or mechanisms that move the paper rather than the print head. The result is the same, in that the print head is effectively swept across the paper linearly to deposit ink on the paper.
A problem with at least some inkjet printers is the presence of aerosol. When a print head of the inkjet printer ejects the ink droplets from the nozzle, ideally they form a single drop that travels to the media. These small droplets stay suspended in air until they settle on a surface, creating a mist or aerosol of ink between the media and the print head and/or the carriage assembly. This aerosol can cause image-quality defects and print artifacts on the media, and may cause the printer to malfunction.
More specifically, the problems that are caused by aerosol can include the following. First, the media on which the ink is being ejected can be stained or marred by the aerosol, resulting in less than desirable image quality. Second, the aerosol can accumulate within the printer itself, which can then stain the user during operation. Third, accumulation of the aerosol within the printer can cause operational problems of the printer itself, especially where the aerosol builds up in slider rods and other movable parts of the printer. Fourth, accumulation of the aerosol within the printer can also build up on optical lenses and parts of the printer, such that they may fail. Fifth, aerosol accumulation can be detrimental cosmetically.